The Interior Minister of Ecuador, John Reimberg, was shot at by a woman when he tried to enter his home in Esmeraldas, in the north of the country, as part of an operation against a drug trafficking and illegal fuel trafficking network.
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“She shot at us. Upon seeing the significant presence of the police who accompanied us, she decided to drop the weapon and hide,” Reimberg told the media. The woman, Patricia Espinosa, alias ‘Lili’, was arrested along with ten other people in an operation carried out simultaneously in Manabí and Tungurahua.
Reimberg posted a video on his social media in which he interacts with the detainee, who claims to have fired by mistake. “There are many thieves,” she is heard saying, before the minister reproachfully tells her that “just for the weapon, you face three years in prison.”
Espinosa, with the help of two brothers, coordinated the logistics of this criminal organization that used the coasts of Esmeraldas and Manabí for the collection and shipment of drugs. Among those arrested is also a police officer. “He who betrays the uniform, betrays the country, and this bad police officer will receive the punishment he deserves,” emphasized the Ecuadorian Interior Minister.
